Nation/World Briefs

March 09, 2006

NATIONAL BRIEFING

DeLay faces election battle with foe who has revenge motive

HOUSTON (AP) -- After defeating three primary challengers in the first election since he was indicted and forced to step aside as majority leader, Rep. Tom DeLay faces what many consider the real contest -- a general election fight against an organized, well-funded Democrat with a score to settle. Nick Lampson, who was unopposed in Tuesday's primary, represented a district adjacent to DeLay's for four terms until it was redrawn in a redistricting plan engineered by DeLay. Lampson lost in 2004 to Republican Ted Poe. DeLay, 58, held on to his ballot position by avoiding public discussions of his considerable political problems -- a felony money-laundering indictment, close ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the loss of his leadership position. Instead, DeLay campaigned at carefully orchestrated events. It paid off with a 2-to-1 victory margin over lawyer Tom Campbell, who had ties to the first President Bush's administration, and two other candidates. NATIONAL BRIEFING

Ex-Texas governor to be treated for cancer of esophagus

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Former Gov. Ann Richards said Wednesday she has cancer of the esophagus and will undergo treatment at the world-renowned M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Richards, 72, went in for tests Monday and got the diagnosis Tuesday, said spokesman Bill Maddox. Maddox said the former governor is waiting to hear from M.D. Anderson how advanced the cancer is and what her chances are. The disease is rare and often fatal in women. Richards, a Democrat, was governor from 1991 to 1995, losing a re-election bid to George W. Bush. Since 2001, she has been an adviser at a public relations and lobbying firm. WASHINGTON BRIEFING

Polls: Americans say it's good Saddam out, U.S. allies unsure

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two-thirds of people in the United States say Iraqis are better off now than under Saddam Hussein, but many longtime U.S. allies are less optimistic, AP-Ipsos polling found. Iraq is struggling to form a government, and the trial of Saddam is in its fifth month. A surge in violence after the Feb. 22 bombing of a sacred Shiite shrine in Samarra raised fears that Iraq could descend into civil war. Of the eight other countries surveyed, only residents of Britain, Italy and Canada were more likely to say Iraqis are "better off" now than they were under Saddam than to say they are "worse off." People in France, Germany, Mexico, South Korea and Spain say Iraq is worse off since the U.S. invasion in March 2003. INTERNATIONAL BRIEFING

Gunmen in government uniforms kidnap 50 at Iraqi company

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Gunmen wearing commando uniforms of the Shiite-dominated Interior Ministry on Wednesday stormed an Iraqi security company that relied heavily on Sunni ex-military men from the Saddam regime, spiriting away 50 hostages. The ministry denied involvement and called the operation a "terrorist act." Police and the U.S. military, meanwhile, reported finding the bodies of 24 men garroted or shot in the head, most of them in an abandoned bus in a tough Baghdad Sunni neighborhood. They also reported the deaths of at least 13 others across Iraq, including a U.S. soldier and a Marine. INTERNATIONAL BRIEFING

Ugandan church wall collapses; at least 27 killed, dozens injured

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) -- A brick wall at a church in Uganda's capital collapsed onto the congregation Wednesday during an evening thunderstorm, killing at least 27 people and injuring dozens more, authorities said. The Protestant evangelical church in a Kampala slum was under construction. Kampala's Mulago Hospital said it received 86 injured people.